Pupdate 8/21/13: Dewclaws — The angst!! The screaming!!

Seriously, I feel SO guilty. I know it’s the standard, I know they risk injury if they keep them, yada yada yada. But I also think there may be an argument for their removal weakening the pasterns, which are not an area of strength in a dwarf breed to begin with; and where Magnum still has his, I’ve seen how he does in fact use them. Still, I opted to remove the Goths’ dewclaws. And by “remove the Goths’ dewclaws,” I totally mean I asked Kate to come and do it, while I held the puppies and scrinched my eyes up and tried not to look at the butchering going on. They came through the ordeal just fine, and even Whiskey didn’t seem overly bothered when she came back from the walk I made The Hubby take her on while we did the deed.

Otherwise, the babies are all fat, sleek, sassy, and healthy, and Whiskey continues to be a great mom. Scent stimulation for the day was comprised of pickle juice and peppermint extract. The puppies were unimpressed with the pickles, but they were pretty excited about the peppermint. It is SO COOL to see the little gears in their brains start turning as they twitch their noses and try to figure out what is in front of their faces.

My first corgi didn’t have his dew claws removed and he had a hideously painful incident one time. Broken and then infected nail bed. It was awful! And another time, I came home from work to find his dewclaw stuck in the ring that held his tags. Who knows how many hours he waited to be rescued.

On the other hand, Wilson had his removed. Then a couple years later, one of them grew back. So to be sure what was going on, he had to have surgery to remove the growth and test it for cancer. Fortunately it was nothing but bone/toe growing back. Now Jimmy has one growing back. Sigh.